I was sitting chatting to my friends who all have teenage kids and I watched how they used their phones and noticed something very peculiar. If a service didn’t have an app and they had to power up their mobile browser, we all had to hear about it with an exhausted groan.

Then I thought about my own mobile usage. Just the other day I needed to send my wife an ‘I’m sorry’ gift (don’t ask). Instinctively, out came my cell phone and straight away I opened up my mobile browser. A quick search for some Groupon coupons and within minutes cookies were being delivered to her at work.

My mobile browser had solved my problem, not an app – however, both could have done it in the same time.

So what was was the link? Why were we reaching for two very different ways of doing things?

The only commonality I could find with the members of this app group was their age. After further questions I found that their first experiences with learning more, ordering or even sharing media using a mobile device were with an app. In fact, when I asked one of them to open their web browser it started to give them a tour as if it hadn’t ever been opened before!

Which Made Me Think…Am I Too Old for Apps?

A quick think about my regular activities made me notice that when it comes to getting things done on my mobile, I was very browser reliant. Sharing a photo to social media or checking my email was all done through my mobile browser.

While it’s hard not to sound like an elderly person using a new piece of technology, I realised that as I grew up through the birth of the internet I had developed a strange and deep connection with a web browser. It was the first tool I used to learn more about the world and to complete my homework and was the first program to show me pictures on the internet and let me speak with people over great distances. For me, it’s less of a service and more of a friend that knows everything and helps me do what I need to do.

Conveying these thoughts to my same-aged friends, I found that their experiences were quite similar, with almost affectionate feelings towards their chosen browser. Not even the same browser, we all used a different mobile browser. Yet we all used a browser.

As technology moves forward and apps increase their functionality, I can’t help but feel my connection with my browser will wane to the point where I become just like these teenagers, app focused.

Until then, if you find yourself like me and my friends and have a connection with your browser, make it last. Enjoy it now because if the trend continues, it may lose its power very soon.